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A) improving fiscal oversight, management and operational efficiency of the 1) Lake County, Florida School District, 2) the separate Lake County Government, 3) the North Lake County Hospital District, PLUS 4) the operations of the independently elected Constitutional Officers (Sheriff, Tax Collector, Assessor, County Clerk, etc.) and also
B) Improving fiscal and management effectiveness of other local government agencies and programs spending taxpayer funds.
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February 22, 2010

Results of Today's Lake County School District Workshop from 2-5pm

I don't normally cover general topics, but today's workshop was rather good, and interesting, so I thought I would share what I heard - this is from my notes, and unlike your professional journalists (who were not there), I don't confirm facts, that I think I heard, so I might be wrong somewhere...

Later tonight is the formal Board meeting, and I will post that info later this week...

To see the meeting agendas, click on the "Calendar" link and then click on the meeting links to see the agenda.

However, they now have a new feature of the website called "Board Docs", which is much better. Go to the same Board member page above and click "Board Docs" and you then select "Public" to see the public agendas and SUPPORTING documents for each agenda line item. As of today, there is a glitch, and that link doesn't work, but it should soon. You can always use the shortcut link I found which is HERE.

So, the agenda for the workshop was five items.

1) Update on Roads and Sidewalks for BBB High school - which is the new HS in Minneola. The road access is pretty restrictive and was built earlier for a housing development, and there are problems with cars already backed up even before the school opens. The County reps were there and discussed current plans with current funding. It was not a pretty picture. The Board even discussed the need to have a "three hole" traffic light, when funding might only be for a 2 hole (I prefer to use the term two lens) light. It is clear the School Board is working on the problem, but collections of sales taxes and impact fees are down, and funds are limited.

I believe the School leadership should just invite parents and tell them "You moved to a growing community that does not get enough tax revenue to build wide roads, etc in time for the crowds at the school. So, realize you moved here to get a low cost house, and with that, you get a low tax income county that does not have the funds to put in traffic lights, turn lanes, etc when you think they should already be there. Get over it! It will get better, and officials in the School District and the County know about this problem, but there just are no funds to do anything now."

2) The School District has a five year plan for capital improvements, ranging from purchases of replacement computers to new schools and roof maintenance. This plan is based upon getting planned revenue collections from sales taxes and impact fees, which are both down. Last year they got over $8-million in impact fees, and based upon reviews of paid housing permits, it might only be $2.4-million, a significant drop. Sales tax revenues are down maybe 8% from last year.

Now, the killer is that the County Commissioners want input from the School Board about accepting a new plan by the Commissioners to defer impact fees (basically subsidizing construction developers) for 2-3 years. If they do that, the entire capital plan is deferred, and may cause significant problems. So, I don't think the School Board will support the County Commissioners on that in a future meeting. As one Board Member said, the County Commissioners may be trying to get the School Board to be the "bad guys" to initiate holds on the impact fee deferments, since the County Commissioners vote on it, not the School Board.

3) Apparently there was a prior impact fee deferral agreement for a development called "The Glen at Cagan's Crossing" which is in South Lake County. The plan was based upon various issues (get the recording of the meeting if you wish to listen), but the gist is that the reason for the deferment was suspect, and they have not even met payment terms yet. Board member Larry Metz had done significant RESEARCH on this, and it seemed like the County Commission blew it and let a developer hornswoggle them (a patented term from me...). This seems to indicate another reason not to support any County Commission plan for deferment issues. (Note - you can post comments below if you have more info or other facts).

4) The Principal of Tavares Middle School gave a presentation on an "Innovative Curriculum" program they implemented at Tavares MS. It was quite interesting, and if you are a parent of any school kid, it would be worthwhile listening to the audio of this meeting, which I THINK will be available later at the Board Docs link mentioned at the beginning of this article. Basically, the staff researched why some students were falling behind and found they were in non-supportive family enviornoment, so they formed a program just for those kids to expose them to future career information and "get them engaged in planning for the future". This program really shows that even though there are funding problems for the School District, and they still don't have a fraud reporting hotline (a hotbutton here at FiscalRangers.com), the school leaders seem to come up with some very innovative ways to improve student interest in schools so they don't drop out. This is the level of work they are doing to bring up grades and retention of students to increase the ranking of Lake County Schools. Kudos to Ms. Mott at Tavares MS and other school staff for coming up with these programs, and the two teachers at the school who apparently volunteered to implement it.

5) Traffic Light at Sawgrass Bay School - for over a year, Board member Cindy Barrow has spearheaded this drive to get a traffic light at this school, which I think is on HWY 27 or other major highway. There is no traffic light and cars stack up turning into the school all the time, and supporters were afraid of an accident. They have had meetings with the MPO (Metropolitan Planning Office?), and Florida Dept of Transportation staff (since it is a State Highway, only they can apparently add a traffic light supported by traffic count surveys) and others, and still no light. So, recently, there was a car wreck at the intersection, and they had pictures of it. At some point, you would think that DOT would not only use traffic counts, but danger risks for determining where to put traffic lights. So the fight goes on...

In summary, your School Board is doing a good job - most of the REAL work gets done at the workshops, which are not on TV, so the public doesn't know what goes on. They seem to take every issue to heart...and someday they will all turn into accountants and my job will be done...